This blog has an identity crisis. It has been superseded, it is being replaced, we're moving in a new direction. But it lives on, feeding on the scraps that the new Sword and Ploughshare won't dare touch. Oh well. Such is life.

Search This Blog

About Me

I am a Master's student in Divinity at the University of Edinburgh, where I am studying Reformation political theology with the venerable Oliver O'Donovan. Thankfully, I have other interests as well, and as time permits and the Spirit moves, I spill the excess of my reflections into blogdom, where it has coalesced into the bricolage you see here.

Ok, so this isn't actually an argument for prelacy per se--more a comment on an advantage the Episcopal churches seem to have over us Reformed folks--that is, the issue of names. We Reformed folk seem to have a very narrow stock of possible church names--basically, some combination of Christ, Trinity, Covenant, and Reformed (or Reformation). That's really about all there is to work with, it seems. Now, allowing for up to two names per church, this allows us only 16 options to choose from (of which not all would really work well), plus a couple odds and ends. This kind of redundancy can lead to a great deal of confusion, even within the narrow Reformed world--"Wait, did you say you were from Covenant Reformed or Reformation Covenant? Oh, that explains the confusion--Covenant Reformed is in Maine, not Iowa!)

In my experience, though, the Episcopal churches prefer to draw from the riches of Church history and name their churches after any number of saints. St. Luke's, St. Mark's, St. John's, St. Bartholomew's, St. Stephen's, St. Thomas's, maybe even St. Bede's.

Why are we Reformed folk so averse to using saints' names in our churches? I assure you that if I ever start a church, it will not have the words "covenant" or "reformed" in it. *ducks and runs*

And then there's "Heritage Covenant" down here in DFW. But you have to admit that any reformed church totally beats the Baptists: "First Baptist of Roswell." "First Baptist of Clovis." "First Baptist of Albuquerque." "First Baptist of the Northeast Heights, Albuquerque." "First Baptist of the Southeast Quadrant of the Northwest Sector Punxatawney."